Reflecting

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING
BIKING
RUNNING
WEIGHTS

This week I did a lot of thinking about when I 1st decided to do a triathlon to where I am now. I'm embarrassed to say this, but about 5.5 years ago I had no idea what a triathlon was. I met a girl who told me she was doing a swim, bike, run thingy with a group that raised money for cancer. My response, "Are you kidding me? That's insane. No way I could ever do that, nor would I want to." Pretty amusing considering I've done 7 events with the organization that raises money for cancer and now I'm doing the ultimate triathlon, an Ironman. I remember when I decided to do a tri, I told anyone and everyone I came in contact with that me, Pamela Robyn Wiener, was going to train and race in an Olympic Distance Triathlon. My how time flies when you're having fun. I don't even really enjoy racing. In fact, I do this mainly because I enjoy training and the friendships I make. Luckily I found some great training partners every time I've done an event. My 1st season was great because most of my training partners were people who had never done an event so we went through everything together from the beginning. Man was I such a novice. I didn't drink on the bike for probably the 1st 4 months when I rode. Dehydration was a better option then taking 1 hand off my bike to drink. My friend Richard actually became my water bottle catcher once I finally decided drinking was a necessity. The amount of bottles I dropped was kind humorous. He would be so proud of me now if he saw that I now reach behind my seat to grab a bottle. It's pretty cool to see how I've grown over the years.

Once again it was a recovery week. This every 4th week break is fantastic. I ended up missing a swim workout on Friday. The day got away from me and I wasn't able to make it to the pool. I was kind of bummed, but it happens. Saturday my workout was an Olympic distance training day. I was supposed to do a 45 minute swim, with a 1x1500 1st and then bike and run. Unfortunately, the kind folks of swim aerobics took over the pool when I went for my swim. I ended up doing the bike and run 1st. When I did the swim, my time for a 1500 was 24:03. Not bad.

We lucked out with weather this week. It was a little too hot for me considering it was just 30, but I managed. My body will need to adjust a little more when training though. My bike for the Olympic was 25 miles, with 6-10 and 20-25 riding as fast as I could. There were portions that were pretty windy. I rode on an extremely flat course, which has been different then every other ride this season. I did it in 1:23:48. I was hoping for something a little faster, but honestly, I can't be too upset with that time. Other then that, my bikes were just an ILT and 30 minute spin this week. Next week will be a killer of hill repeats and a long ride. I'm nervous, but excited for the challenge.

My 1st run of the week was for :45. I ended up doing it with a jogger and a 1 year old. Holy crap was that brutal! I seriously thought I was going to die. My pace was extremely slow and I was beyond winded. Good news is it was a damn good workout. When I did my run with the Olympic, it was pretty brutal. I ran it in 58:12. That doesn't include the times that I stopped to stand under shade or to drink. I also had 3, 1 mile as fast as I can sprints. Those sprints didn't last too long or get too fast either. I'm not sure whether it was the weather, dehydration or hammering it on the bike, but my legs were dead. The TNT marathon team was out there with jugs of Powerade so I was able to get a couple of glasses from them. Plus, I ran into my friend Stashak who was riding his bike and luckily he gave me some fluids also. Lately I've been running with a bottle of water, but today my water was too hot from sitting in the car while I biked. I wish this run wasn't as tough considering I have an Olympic Tri in 3 weeks, but I was out there getting this workout done. It doesn't matter how long it takes me as long as I do it.